Former Rutgers track star prepares for the Olympics
*Article updated June 29, 2012
Julie Culley's dream has come true. Not only does the 2004 Rutgers graduate who double majored in marketing and political science, run for a living, but the 30-year-old has just nabbed a spot U.S. Olympic Team in the 5,000-meter race, in which she finished first place at the U.S. Olympic trials on June 28. She will represent the United States in London in July.
She is sponsored by Asics and she is a member of the NY-NJ Track Club, a nonprofit organization that supports runners and trains them to excel. Practices aren't too far from a place she knows well, either – twice a week, the club meets at Rutgers for workouts.
Culley has come full circle. After injuries and running burnout, she never thought she'd continue to be a competitive runner after graduating from Rutgers.
"I don't know if I'd be running now if I had started a different career. I would probably be living and working in New York City like many of my friends. Running pro happened after years of climbing back uphill," says Culley, chatting over dinner at the Harvest Moon Brewery in New Brunswick.
Culley, a slim brunette who sports a constant smile, is friendly, the kind of person who holds the door so the person behind her could pass through first. But when she's running, she can be an intimidating force, all long, lean legs, and arms. On the track, no one would call her sweet.
In high school in Annandale, New Jersey, Culley was a cross-country state champion and an All American in the distance medley relay.
Her success continued on Rutgers’ New Brunswick Campus, where she was also an All American runner, coached primarily by Roberta Anthens, who retired in 2006.
"Roberta taught me to be patient, she taught me how to train, she taught me how to think for myself," she said. "She was, and still is, an extremely independent woman. She instilled and emphasized that in each of us."
During her time at Rutgers, Culley set school records in the 3,000 meter, 5,000 meter, and distance relay races. She also won the 2004 New Jersey NCAA Woman of the Year award.
But she almost didn't continue running after college where, she admits, she "loved to burn the candle at both ends." While training and traveling and running for track and cross country (where she was also a captain for three years), she served on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, was the community service coordinator for professional business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, mentored students in the Piscataway school district, and fundraised for a small school in the Dominican Republic through the Catholic Center. "I always took on too many extra-curricular activities, and my running would suffer," she said.
So she took a coaching job at Loyola College. Even though she stopped running at the same level, she calls her time there a blessing. “It kept me in the sport but in a new capacity," she says.
After she recovered from injuries, the job led her to fall back in love with running. She started training again in 2007 and, in 2008, made her first World Championship team. She signed a pro-contract with Asics two weeks later.
In 2010, she joined the NJ-NY Track Club, which included Olympian Erin Donohue and Coach Frank Gagliano, who has coached five Olympians. Gagliano had worked at Rutgers during the 1970s and 1980s, after which he coached at Georgetown and then moved to the west coast to work with runners there. He moved back to the tri-state area after the death of his daughter in law, and decided to stick close to home.
The club's location in New Jersey, and close to Rutgers, was key for Culley. "I thought it would be an easier transition, moving back home under a similar training schedule," she says. Most professional track clubs, like the ones Gagliano formerly coached, are on the West Coast, and this is was the first of its caliber on the East Coast.
The NJ-NY Track Club started with a few runners, and now has more than 20 whose goal is “to run like a pro and get to the Olympics,” Culley says. Donors pay for the runners' expenses so that they can train full time.
Culley has a few more duties, too. She keeps the books and acts as the unofficial den mother to the club's younger runners, many of whom are in their early 20s. She even lives with four of the runners in a house in Clifton, New Jersey, which is paid for by the track club.
"There are very few athletes who can claim to be so lucky. I have an incredibly supportive coach, family, friends, and now training support, an encouraging environment," she said. "I really feel like I have it all."